News Broadcasting
Sensex plunges 213 points on poll predictions
MUMBAI: The politicians may dismiss them but the stock markets seem to have reacted and how to the latest opinion and exit polls that all the news channels released following the completion of the third round of polling yesterday.
Indian stocks plunged 3.6 per cent today posting their sharpest fall in over three years most polls predicted that the country was headed for another hung Parliament triggering negative sentiments in the markets on fears that economic reforms might get stalled or delayed.
The Sensex swimming in the red zone was down a whopping 213.30 points to finally close at 5,712.28, a loss of more than $12 billion. The S&P CNX Nifty tanked 75 points or 3.9 per cent to 1,817.25.
An idea of just how severe the bleed at the bourses was can be gauged by the fact that today’s haemorrhage is the sharpest since the stock market scam of March 2001 that was linked to big-time broker Ketan Parekh.
Speaking of media scrips it was a red day all round with almost all stocks on the casualty list. The effects of the exit polls were clearly seen here too.
The major loser of the day was Crest Communication down a whopping 12.19 per cent at Rs 41.05.
Others to follow suit were Saregama and Galaxy Entertainment with a massive loss of over nine per cent ending the day at Rs 49.00 and Rs 27.35 respectively.
Sri Adhikari Brothers, Cinevistaas and Padmalaya Telefilms also lost over seven per cent each closing the day at Rs 59.65, 27.45 and Rs 59.10 respectively.
Amongst other prominent losers were Creative Eye, BAG Films Ltd, Adlabs Films, Balaji Telefilms, TV Today, Pritish Nandy Communications and Zee Telefilms.
So just what were these polls all talking about anyway. Given below are their predictions.
NDTV gave the NDA 235-255 seats, with the Congress and its allies might tipped to get between 190-210 with 100-120 going to others.
Aaj Tak projected the Congress-led camp would get 177 seats, while the NDA tally would be 262 and others would get 104.
Star News predicted that the NDA would get between 267 and 279 parliamentary seats, the Congress and its allies 160-172 and gave 97-109 to others, including the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Sahara News, which covered the 282 seats that have gone to the polls so far, projected 155 seats for the NDA, 99 for the Congress and the rest for others.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
